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De Tomaso Brand to be Revived

Despite the recession, people with huge bank accounts think ahead and consider this economical context an opportunity to make older dreams come true. This is the case of Italian businessman Gian Mario Rossignolo, who’s life dream was to bring back to life a forgotten auto brand, and now plans to revive the De Tomaso sports car.

Gian Mario Rossignolo, former Fiat S.p.A marketing executive, bought the De Tomaso brand from a Modena bankruptcy court this month. In October, Rossignolo secured a plant for the future production of De Tomaso by signing a preliminary deal to rent Pininfarina's factory in Grugliasco, in the western outskirts of Turin, one of three Pininfarina plants, as reported by autonews.com. The plant has 900 employees and includes a body shop, paint shop and final assembly facility.

The first model of the Italian brand will debut in 2011 at the Geneva auto show. According to Autonews, the plans include a three model range. Each year Rossignolo plans to build 3,000 units of the crossover, 3,000 luxury sedans and 2,000 coupes. The new De Tomaso company will invest 116 million euros in the next four years, said Rossignolo.

This Italian business man aged 79 is not as his first attempt of reviving an auto brand, as 15 years ago he attempted to restart Isotta Fraschini. An Audi-based Isotta Fraschini T8 concept car was shown at the 1996 Geneva show, but the car never made it into production. We hope he will have better luck with the De Tomaso, especially as it is an iconic brand for sports car fans since the ‘60s.
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